Why you should be as active on Spotify as you are on Facebook

10 small steps you can take to maintain and grow your presence on Spotify

Most musicians understand by now that a Facebook page is like a garden. It needs to be tended daily. Neglect your Facebook page for too many days or weeks in a row and your reach will fall off, your engagement will dry up, and you’ll have to work twice as hard to get things back to so-so.

But daily tending doesn’t have to mean hours in front of your computer; two minutes to post something, three or four minutes responding to comments and messages, done.

The same is true for Spotify — you should be tending to your Spotify presence every single day.

Spotify is more than an interactive streaming service:

It’s a curation platform — and playlisting is the new radio in terms of “breaking” acts.

Spotify also serves as a direct line to your listeners, since your new releases can be placed in your followers’ weekly customized Discover Weekly and Release Radar playlists.

In this article

... is the Editor of CD Baby's DIY Musician Blog. I write Beatlesque indie-pop songs that've been praised by No Depression, KCRW, The LA Times, & others. My poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, Prairie Schooner, The Poetry Review, & more. I live in Maine and like peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, a little too much.

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Yes super important information here, but consider the other 20+ million doing this! I’m a music producer and wrote a program which identifies crucial song optimisation tweaks to maximise probabilistic auto-selection on music playlists – because the power to create wealth from publishing music lies in constant inclusion on billions of playlists every day – and it’s too cost prohibitive (especially for Indie Artists) to pay for ongoing promo. You really want to get your music to induce automatic selection on playlists, forever. https://traktomizer.com

Linda Vee Sado

Not geeky enough to understand that at all

Linda Vee Sado

Not geeky enough to understand that at all

Matthew Charles Montfort

Interesting program. Does it track genres such as world music traditions and the full range of jazz?

Matthew Charles Montfort

Interesting program. Does it track genres such as world music traditions and the full range of jazz?

Tecumseh

I’m interested in your traktomizer, even though I’m older, my recording techniques are rudimentary, and my songs sound like 50s and 60s popular songs. I bet they would totally flunk the traktomizer challenge. And yet people like them. I would talk to you about it if I had an address to address.

Susan Cantey

I don’t know how to get on “Spotify” in the first place. My music is there, but I am not. Help! 🙂

Susan Cantey

I don’t know how to get on “Spotify” in the first place. My music is there, but I am not. Help! 🙂

Well, is CD Baby your distributor? If so, we delivered your music to Spotify! As for YOU being there, it’s pretty simple. Just visit their site, download the desktop app (or the phone app), and away you go…

Susan Cantey

Yes…but I was reading about “getting on play lists” which would be nice! I’ll do as you say and poke around their website.

IDK, I’m a Verified Artist https://open.spotify.com/artist/3KY3A9Y6JtGx0KtqtnXli1 but Spotify recently removed the ability to contact the followers within Spotify. That means I have to find them all on other social networks in order to let them know about new music or playlists. At this point, it’s now much more productive to promote through twitter or instagram, because there is no internal communication method in Spotify anymore. Me and a couple thousand other artists have brought this issue up to Spotify, which has fallen on deaf ears.
Thanks

But what if you can’t claim your spotify page yet because you don’t have enough followers? Would you do all of that from your regular spotify profile? OR do you need to WAIT until you can claim your music page? Please help

Don’t get your music played too many times on Spotify or they will cut you off. Had it happen to a friend. Spotify claimed he & his fans played his music too often. That it was fraudulently played by a couple of fans. Fact is, that it could have NEVER been played that many times by only a couple of people. Spotify just didn’t want to pay up.

All of this makes perfect sense, of course. I am a CD Baby artist who signed up back in 2010 for the big distribution plan, which put my music on most of the big-name sites world-wide plus many smaller ones that don’t even pay. I’ve even had a few people email me and tell me “I’m glad your music is on Spotify!” There’s a wee small problem though: though my music is indeed on Spotify, I live and work in South Korea, so when I go to the Spotify page, I get “Spotify is not available in your country.” I don’t know when or even if this will change, but ’til that day comes, Spotify is for all practical purposes unavailable to me.

Allen Bruce Ray

All of this makes perfect sense, of course. I am a CD Baby artist who signed up back in 2010 for the big distribution plan, which put my music on most of the big-name sites world-wide plus many smaller ones that don’t even pay. I’ve even had a few people email me and tell me “I’m glad your music is on Spotify!” There’s a wee small problem though: though my music is indeed on Spotify, I live and work in South Korea, so when I go to the Spotify page, I get “Spotify is not available in your country.” I don’t know when or even if this will change, but ’til that day comes, Spotify is for all practical purposes unavailable to me.

Okay, little help, please, and forgive my dumb questions: so, for better or worse, I have two spotify accounts (long story); one is David Nyro, user, one is David Nyro, artist. I want to direct folks to my artist page, via my website, social media, etc. Is that kosher, or should I delete my user account to avoid confusion. Next, I was able to add the spotify icon to my website, easy, which links to my “artist” page, but hit a dead end trying to install a button. Read the tutorials, but, for some reason, I don’t have the “more” icon on my artist page. It’s on my user page, but there is no option to “copy HTTP link,” etc. Hmm. Upgrade? I’ve got Premium. Yet, there’s no “Upgrade” button on my page either. Do I need to be verified first to be able to do this? I don’t think so. I pasted the link to my ep in the field in your Spotify Play Button instructions (Step 2, “Get the Code”), but couldn’t copy the embed code. It’s there, but I can’t copy it. Sorry, I’m asking multiple questions. Thanks!

Hi David,
Part of the verification process allows you to combine your artist profile with your user profile. Don’t delete your user account! Just combine them during verification (which you can now do even without 250 followers). Also, you shouldn’t need to upgrade to premium in order to get the correct artist linkage working. Not sure why that’s happening. Got any musician friends who’ve already embedded everything correctly on their site that can help you out?

Johnny Lately

Yawn.. so in a nutshell you’re saying hustle your music and brand. Nothing new here. But thanks just the same.

I honestly have not been paying that much attention to my Spotify followers, as I’ve often wondered what’s the value? We all know by now you don’t go to Spotify for revenue, is there data that it will increase access to true fans? I guess I am pondering this on the whole with all social media, there’s so much emphasis on “getting lots of followers” but the more I get, the more it seems I just find a bunch of people that are willing to “like” something but not go any further. Does anybody else feel me on this or am I missing a step on how to convert followers on Spotify or any other platform to true fans?

Well, it’s more a case of: this is how everyone will listen to music. You might as well build a presence there. And when you do, those followers are likely to get notifications whenever you release new albums or singles. Will those people be “true fans?” I suppose the chances are as likely as they are on Facebook. Some of them are, many of them aren’t. But your music will appear in their Discover Weekly playlists just the same, and every new release gives you a new opportunity to turn them from a casual follower to a true fan. That’s one way in which the connect you have with your following on Spotify feels more… direct. As for money, well, there are working-class musicians making good money from Spotify — mainly through getting songs onto lots of smaller or a few big playlists (and owning all their rights).

Things are wild and crazy, just focusing on doing my best and finding balance and peace in it all . yep, so excited for Nashville!!! Everything is booked and I even booked a gig earlier in the week at Tennesee Brew Works, so stoked!!! You doing well?

Nice. If we’re there early enough, maybe I can catch that show. Send me a reminder. Yep, busy and good on my end. My wife is opening a new acupuncture clinic, I put out a single last week, work, life, HBO GO.

Thanks @Tehondi:disqus for the motivation! This makes me feel sooo much better! ! By the way, I really hope that you can help me out. I’m new artist chasing my dreams of spreading my talent to the world. I need 250 followers on Spotify to register as an artist. I’m not asking for much, but if you could help me get one step closer to my goals please help a fellow human and click this link : THANK YOU!!!